Early in December, Laurie and I drove up to Chicago for a whirlwind weekend, stopping for lunch in lovely Galena, IL. On Friday night, my old friend David and his new girlfriend Gloria picked us up at our hotel and brought us to Greektown for dinner at the Athena, where this picture was taken. On Saturday, we linked up with my niece Alia to take in the German Christmas Market, then saw her apartment in Lincoln Park and met her boyfriend Mike. Saturday night, Laurie and I walked over to David's condo for his annual holiday party. And on Sunday, after a couple of hours in the Museum of Contemporary Art and a huge lunch at Indian Garden, we drove the five hours back to Waterloo.